Aldi to investigate battery storage and DSR following major solar push

Aldi has revealed it is investigating battery storage and demand side response applications for its estate as it prepares to add solar panels to 50 more stores by the end of the year.

The supermarket has already installed more than 85,000 solar panels on all nine of its regional distribution centres and more than 275 stores across the UK, with a combined capacity of around 22.5MWp.

It plans to increase this by almost 3MWp by the end of 2017, adding to its generation capacity which already delivers over 17,500 MWh of electricity a year.

Mary Dunn, communications director at Aldi UK, states that the store is committed to reducing its carbon footprint.

“Harnessing the power of solar energy is just one of the ways we’re doing that,” she said.

“It also means that we are using all of our distribution centres and more than a third of our stores across the UK to generate electricity from solar power, marking a further significant step in our journey to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent by 2020, while continuing to grow.”

A spokesperson added that the supermarket was also considering the uses of storage and DSR as part of its “horizon scanning activities” to identify technologies that can be used to benefit the company.

If adopted, Aldi would follow competing supermarket Sainsbury’s in adopting the technology after the latter revealed in August last year that it was already trialling a system in an unnamed store in order to better understand its potential applications.